Friday, March 6, 2009

An Update on the University City Plane Crash

Often times, plane crashes are due to pilot errors.

True enough in the plane crash last December where 4 people were killed including an 11-month old infant, pilot error was the main reason for such tragic incident.

Due to such crash, the pilot who timely ejected before the plane hit the ground was suspended pending investigation, four other marines were relieved from their posts and eleven others were reprimanded.

The crash was said to be a combination of errors and bad judgment from the pilot and his ground commanders.

Initially, the pilot was told to land at a coastal Navy base but chose to land at a more distant base causing him to fly above the populated area of University City. Recordings proved that the pilot repeatedly passed upon suggestions to land at the North Island.

Col. John Rupp, operations officer for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Miramar said that it was the prudent and correct decision to land at North Island in case of emergency but it was never made hence, the crash over University City neighborhood.

Although the pilot has many hours of flying, it did not warrant him to be over confident thinking nothing bad would happen. Flying is risky by it self. It risks not only the lives of passengers and crew but also those under.

The crash was also a wake up call for those involved to pass upon the procedures during emergency calls. It also made the scrutiny of rules involving aviation.

Clearly, the tragedy could have been prevented. If not for the utter negligence of some people, the victims could be living now.